The Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville, Georgia, has become the temporary home for a fragment of an outer-space rock that dazzled Southeastern skies and rattled homes last week. According to FOX 5 Atlanta, the recovered meteorite, which streaked through the atmosphere on June 26, is now a part of the museum's collection. This specimen, weighing in at 150 grams, is believed to be a stony meteorite known as a chondrite, featuring small mineral granules.
NASA reported the meteor entered our atmosphere at a blistering 30,000 miles per hour, eventually disintegrating 27 miles above ground. In a state where meteorite falls are a relatively rare event, the fireball became the 29th documented in Georgia, and its impact was strong enough to trigger both the Geostationary Lightning Mappers on NOAA’s satellites and Doppler radars, according to statements from the Tellus Museum curated by Amy Gramsey.
Residents in Henry County experienced the celestial event firsthand, when a fragment tore through a homeowner's roof, leaving a golf-ball-sized hole and a cracked laminate floor, as per the National Weather Service office in Peachtree City, Georgia. Dashboard and doorbell cameras captured images of the fireball, which was seen clearly even in broad daylight across several Southeastern states.
"Meteorite landings like this are pretty rare," Karisa Zdanky, the museum's astronomy program manager, noted in an interview with AccessWDUN. She emphasized the unique nature of the event, highlighting the meteorite's visibility during the day and its sufficient size that allowed for recoverable fragments. Despite the frequency of space debris entering Earth's atmosphere, it's uncommon for such pieces to reach the ground and be witnessed by the public.
The Tellus Science Museum expects to put the meteorite on display by the end of the summer, providing visitors with an up-close look at this billion-year-old traveler from the cosmos. The name of the new specimen has yet to be announced, but its arrival has certainly made a lasting impression on both the scientific community and the residents of Georgia who experienced its earth-shaking debut.
